Come And Join Me In My Creativity Zone

Come and join me in my Creativity Zone where you can enjoy fun and challenging card design ideas that will inspire you to learn new techniques to maximize the use of your craft tools, most especially the Silhouette Cameo machine along with the Silhouette Studio Designer software, and truly enjoy your crafting to the fullest.

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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

DIY Pen Holder For The Silhouette Cameo (or Portrait) Machine

I want to share a great video tutorial on how you can recycle a Silhouette sketch pen into a pen holder for different kinds of pens like gel pens, Uniball pens, etc. The video was posted on our Silhouette Brazil group on Facebook. The very ingenious tip was shared by Ana Carine Wedderhoff on her video tutorial, Recycle Silhouette Sketch Pen.

I never really cared for the sketch pens but this video got me so interested as I have a lot of gel pens. I shared the video on my other Facebook group, the PCA (Philippine Crafters Association) and a team member, Aj Fernandez, very kindly shared one of her Silhouette sketch pens with me and shipped it to me the very same day from the South. I was so elated with her sweet gesture. She even sent me a sticky note pad along with the sketch pen. I told Aj to retain the ink cartridge and to just send me the case. I just received the pen case this afternoon and I excitedly immediately worked on it. I used a small pair of scissors in making the hole bigger to slide the end of the gel pen ink cartridge through. The scissors is more manageable for me than heating a nail/screw as shown on Ana's video. Make sure to make the size of the hole just enough to slide the end of the cartridge through, the fit should be tight. You will need to make another sketch pen for a pen with thicker or thinner ink cartridge, so one sketch pen for every size of ink cartridge that you will be using. It only took me a few seconds to widen the hole, it was effortless so make sure to do this tad by tad, constantly fitting the cartridge until you get the right fit.

I created various samples for you to see how impressive the results are. Even if I have not tried any of the pen holders being sold out there, I think I can safely say that this recycled pen holder is at par with the best ones.

Most of the fonts are 'double-lined' which are not really good for sketching text. You need to choose the ones which are very thin and with a smaller size of text, the sketch will look like the font is 'single-lined'. I wonder if there is a technique in filling the text. If anyone knows how, kindly post a comment and share :).

My sincerest thanks to Ana Carine Wedderhoff and Aj Fernandez.

Happy crafting!

Ligaya

Silhouette sketch pen, courtesy of my PCA buddy, Aj Fernandez

The gel pen I used here has an embossed effect.

My black gel pen is old and its ink is skipping a bit.

The rose flower is a sketch design from the Silhouette store.

My gold gel pen sketches wonderfully. It has a beautiful sheen not captured on the photo.

I created an offset close to the outline of the frame for the cut line.

18 comments:

I understand that you can use the offset to fill a font. I haven't tried it but I did read it on another Cameo list. Great tip for when the sketch pens get empty. I am fortunate to have a talented son who made me a couple of aluminum pen holders. One for smaller pens and one for markers. I am truly blessed...

GayleNow, more than ever, I want that Silhouette machine !! :)I have several pens for the Cricut Expression so probably all I would need (when I get my machine) would be a pen so I can make the holder.Great tutorial by the way.Myrna

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing your tips on how to make our own pen holders. I have a package of the sketch pens, but I haven't tried them yet. I have tons of gel pens and it's great to see how to use them with my Silhouette! Thanks again.

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About Me

I started making cards way back in 1999 when my very close friend, Leila, asked me if I was interested in hosting a Stampin’ Up demonstration party. That started the ball rolling for me and I’ve never given out any store-bought card since then which has been a joy to my family and friends. My craft was elevated to new heights when I bought my Silhouette SD machine just over a year ago. What an amazing digital cutting system! Truly awesome!
I used to live in the USA and decided to settle back in the Philippines in 2004. I lived in San Francisco for 18 years, a couple of blocks from the Golden Gate Park. My life in the US was a blast. I had a flourishing career in Finance and was consumed with my work all those years until it wore me out. With enough hard earned savings and enticement from my family, I packed my bags and purchased a one-way ticket to the Philippines. It was such a great blessing to be able to afford to make such a tough decision and enjoy early retirement. And the beauty of it all is the luxury of having a dedicated craft room and having the luxurious time to devote on my crafts along with other personal interests like my charity work.